Adam Benzine of music industry bible 'Music Week' said it will really shake things up in terms of album pricing.

"Radiohead have really put the cat amongst the pigeons with this one," he told NME.COM. "The album will revolutionise the way people think about music. It had already forced people to question how much music is actually worth.

they need some incentive to sell the 'discbox' besides vinyl and digital photos that'll be on the internet the day the thing is sent out anyway.

No, I would guess they need some incentive to charge £40 for the deluxe version rather than the regular version. It says "So Far, it is only available from this website"-- so the idea is that eventually they will ship regular CDs, eh? I would guess this will happen on 12/3, same as when those who ordered the huge package get their shit. That is the release date.

Oct. 10, however, is the leak date: What Radiohead have done is leaked their own album, two months before its physical release -- same as everything else -- but they turned it into an event and a moral decision about whether you should pay for that leak or you should just steal/take it/sample it and maybe buy it later, whatever you want to call it. And they've enticed people to actually give them money for a leak in part by, at this moment, setting up this deluxe product as your only other choice to pay for their music.

Yeah, in this case they're really just "leaking" their album 3 months early, giving people an opportunity to buy a really nice physical product, and leaving it up to the individual to pay and consume as they see fit, really. It's really genius. "Hey, this is our album, and it's going to leak, but we'll be the ones to leak it. And some of you will never pay for this, and we understand that, so we're going to let you pay whatever you want to. We're respecting the way shit is done these days. We know that, if you respect us, you will pay us somehow for our hard work and good music, and if you don't you won't. This would happen either way, but at least now we're doing this on our own terms."

Also, whoever said they might give free concert tickets or something to the people who bought the $80 package thing is probably OTM here. Otherwise, I don't really see why they're bundling all that stuff up and making it impossible for anyone to order just the CD as of now . . . unless it's just because *that's what they want to do*, and that's what this whole thing is about anyway - a band creating and distributing its music the way it wants to as much as that can be done these days.

Him: I met her down in Napoli and didn't she look great?
And so I brought her back to Blighty just to show me mates,
And though we're married happily I'll tell you furthermore
I haven't had a decent meal since 1944.

Her: Eat your minestrone, Joe.
Him: That's all you ever say.
Her: Eat your macaroni, Joe.
Him: Ever blinking day.
Her: No wonder you're so bony, Joe, and skinny as a rake.
Him: Well then, give us a bash at the bangers and mash me mother used to make.

Him: Bangers and mash,
Her: Minestrone,
Him: Bangers and mash,
Her: Macaroni,
Him: Give us a bash at the bangers and mash me mother used to make.

Her: Well alright!
Him: Bangers and mash,
Her: Tagliatelle,
Him: Bangers and mash,
Her: Vermicelli,
Him: Give us a bash at the bangers and mash me mother used to make.

Reporter: (Spoken) 1943. Allied forces land in Italy.
Him: There's a smashing-looking bird over there, Bert. I think she's showing out there.
Bert: (Camp) Well why don't you chat her up, then?
Him: Right. Bon-gorno, sig-noreena there. Here, are you married?
Her: Drop-a dead-a.
Him: There you are, you can't have a fairer answer than that, can you?

Her: I met him back in Italy, so dashing and good-looking,
He wined me and he dined me every night.
He said I smiled so prettily and how he loved my cooking,
But since he's married me it seems he's lost his appetite.

Him: Bangers and-a mash,
Her: Minestrone,
Him: Bangers and-a mash,
Her: Macaroni,
Him: Give me a bash with (she laughs uncontrollably) the banger and the mash like the same one that your mother was — what are you laughing at now? Now, this is miserable, please!

What could the rationale possibly be for paying for the download, though? Once they offer it for free, then any money you decide to give is just like giving to charity. Only I'm not too sure Thom Yorke needs my charity.

ha ha "industry types" weighing in. These people--whose livelihood depends on the status quo--are the primary reason that the industry has tanked. They are the reason Radiohead is doing what they are doing. And if you've read Coolfer long enough, it's obvious that Glenn is dubious of technology and is empathetic to the old guard.

Props to them for trying something different, but I'm not so sure that it is prefiguring the future of music delivery. It's a move that could only be made by a band that was already phenomenally successful, and its business model seems to be: "The music's free, but we'll soak the geek-fan who fetishises the object." Not sure that's really going to work for 99 percent of people who make music.

"soak" was maybe unnecessarily pejorative, no one's forced to buy anything. But the tactic is to go upmarket. Forget about trying to make money out of the average punter, and to make up for it, charge the uber-fans 4 times more. (You can be sure that the product itself is not going to cost 4 times more to produce).

It's clearly not going to change things for most bands, let alone a billion dollar industry.

The thing I love is that it reinforces the value of DIY, or at least as DIY as band of Radiohead's stature can be.

I really don't see why anyone would care if someone wants to pay $80 for what amounts to art, especially given what the box contains (I thought soaking the rich was good!). Seems like a good value to me, although I probably won't buy it. I certainly would rather the band get more of my money than some dude on eBay.

I think the main thing is that it prompts ideas. Obviously it's not going to change how things are done straightaway, but it's interesting and they're a band that's huge enough that when they do something like this, it gets the big labels to sit up and take notice.

A lot of artists these days are self-releasing records in a similar way but for the most part it's happening on the fringes. With Radiohead, at the very least, we'll get to see whether something like this can be viable or not in the long run, and yeah hopefully encourage more artists to take a bit more control in terms of how they want to make money from their music.

I don't care if someone wants to pay $80 and I don't think Radiohead are doing anything "wrong" and I think it's an interesting experiment - but I don't think this model's really leading anywhere either. From a financial perspective, I'm guessing they'll make a fraction of what they made from OK Computer or Kid A. But yeah, props for trying something different.

I only think it's different in that it places a slight moral choice - should I or should I not pay something? Otherwise, it's just like any old album. Also even if you don't pay a cent, they still have your details and an excuse to spam your inbox.

Like EMI didn't make most of the money from those anyway, gimme a break!

Sure, evil record company made a bundle too. Don't know what percentage Radiohead was on, but I don't suppose they did too badly out of it. And now they don't have a record company to pay protection to. But in strict terms of business models, this latest strategy will generate only a fraction of what the previous (admittedly now unworkable) model generated. That's my guess anyway!

Also even if you don't pay a cent, they still have your details and an excuse to spam your inbox.
-- Roz, Monday, October 1, 2007 2:55 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

exactly! you can bet there's a huge tour in the works, and that everyone who puts in their contact info for this download (whether they pay nothing, a little or a lot) is gonna get an announcement straight to their email in a few months.

Another thing that occurred to me as well -- no complaints about people making mp3 rips of radio broadcasts of pre-released tracks, not to mention no worries about radio stations playing anything before they're supposed to. Jack White must be grousing as we type.

(Also, some writer colleagues in the UK checked with the band's PR folks, who confirmed -- no advances/listening parties/etc., everyone gets it all at once.)

... so by the time a review appears in the monthlies, the download album will be more than two months old but it's going to be just in time for the box set (December) or the actual CD (if they release that in January).